Search for top-quark decays $t \rightarrow Hq$ with 36 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A search for flavour-changing neutral current decays of a top quark into an up-type quark ($q=u, c$) and the Standard Model Higgs boson, $t\rightarrow Hq$, is presented. The search is based on a dataset of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. Two complementary analyses are performed that search for top-quark pair events in which one top quark decays into $Wb$ and the other top quark decays into $Hq$, and target the $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ and $H\rightarrowτ^+τ^-$ decay modes, respectively. The high multiplicity of $b$-quark jets, or the presence of hadronically decaying $τ$-leptons, are exploited in the two analyses respectively. Multivariate techniques are used to separate the signal from the background, which is dominated by top-quark pair production. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found, and 95% CL upper limits on the $t\rightarrow Hq$ branching ratios are derived. The combination of these searches with ATLAS searches in diphoton and multilepton final states yields observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits on the $t\rightarrow Hc$ and $t\rightarrow Hu$ branching ratios of $1.1 \times 10^{-3}$ ($8.3 \times 10^{-4}$) and $1.2 \times 10^{-3}$ ($8.3 \times 10^{-4}$), respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the $|λ_{tcH}|$ and $|λ_{tuH}|$ couplings are 0.064 (0.055) and 0.066 (0.055), respectively.